‘The Way Home’: Everything You Need to Remember Before Watching Season 2
The Way Home Season 2 is coming to Hallmark Channel. New episodes of the time travel family drama begin airing on Jan. 21 and will hopefully deliver answers to our biggest questions about what happened to Jacob and what’s next for the Landry women. Need a refresher on where things stood with Kat, Alice, and Del at the end of last season? Here’s what you need to remember before watching The Way Home Season 2.
What is ‘The Way Home’ about?
The Way Home Season 1 introduced viewers to the Landry family. Kat Landry (Chyler Leigh), who has recently lost her job as a reporter and separated from her husband, moves from Minneapolis to her hometown of Port Haven, with her teenage daughter Alice (Sadie Laflamme-Snow) in tow. Kat has an uneasy reunion with her mom, Del (Andie MacDowell), from whom she’s been estranged for years. Their relationship fractured decades earlier, following the mysterious disappearance of Kat’s 8-year-old brother Jacob (Remy Smith) and the death of her father, Colton (Jefferson Brown).
Alice, who is struggling to adjust to life in a small town, discovers that a pond on the family farm is actually a portal that can send people back in time. Alice and her mother use the pond to travel to the past in an effort to understand what really happened to Jacob and Colton and prevent the tragedies that devastated the Landry family. However, all of Kat and Alice’s efforts to change the past fail.
Kat’s high school friend Elliot (Evan Williams) can’t time travel, but he becomes aware of the Landry family secret when he meets Alice on one of her trips to the past. Elliot, who grows up to become a high school science teacher, helps Alice and Kat understand the principles of time travel. As a result, he becomes convinced that changing the past is impossible, and based on the way things play out in season 1, it seems his theory is correct. (However, we wouldn’t be surprised if time travel turns out to be a bit more complicated and unpredictable than it seems.)
Elliot broke up with Kat in the ‘The Way Home’ Season 1 finale
In The Way Home Season 1 finale, Kat – who’d previously learned that she and Alice were inadvertently responsible for Colton’s death in a car accident – discovers that she was the mysterious woman at his funeral. Her presence led Del to suspect her late husband had been unfaithful. An emotional Kat opens up to Elliot about everything she’s learned, telling him that she was “the root of all the bad things that happened to my family.” Elliott urges her to let go of what has already happened and focus on the future.
But was Elliot really talking about himself as he told Kat to move on? He had been nursing a crush on her since high school, and the two had finally acted on their feelings for each other in episode 8. In the finale, she signed her divorce papers, clearing the way for her to be with Elliot. But he unexpectedly broke things off. Elliot has known what the future holds for him ever since he was in high school. Now, he wants to be free to chart his own path, even if that means not being with Kat. Kat is devastated but accepts his decision. However, while their romance has been put on pause, chances are it’s not over for good.
The Way Home Season 1 finale also revealed who sent the letter that prompted Kat to return to Port Haven. While Del had written the letter, she denied sending it. It turns out that during one of her trips to the past, Alice saw her grandmother throw the letter away. She rescued it from the trash and mailed it to her mother, leading them to move back to Kat’s hometown.
Kat discovers what may have happened to Jacob
At the beginning of The Way Home finale, Kat seemed to be seriously considering giving up her efforts to find out what happened to Jacob. All her efforts to discover the truth and prevent a tragedy just keep causing her and her family more pain. But a moment at the end of the episode changes everything.
Kat, Alice, and Del are in the kitchen when the family dog, Fynn, walks into the house with a baseball. Del mentions that Fynn can’t stay out of the pond, which gives Kat an idea. Could Jacob have followed Fynn into the pond on the night he disappeared? She checks the family almanac and finds a note along with Jacob’s initials. “The explorer found a home, but he still looks to the stars when he feels lost,” it reads. That’s a reference to a conversation Jacob and Kat had not long before he vanished. Kat quickly shares her theory with Alice: Jacob fell into the pond and ended up stuck in the 19th century. Then, Del walks in and wants to know what’s going on. As far as we know, Del doesn’t know time travel is possible. But it looks like Kat is about to reveal the truth, since she excitedly tells her mother she thinks she knows what happened to Jacob.
The episode ends with a call back to the opening scene of the series premiere. The year is 1814, and the woman in white (aka the white witch) is fleeing from an angry mob. Only this time, we see her face. It’s Kat. Just before she jumps into the pond, she speaks: “I’ll be back for you, Jacob. I promise.”
The Way Home Season 2 premieres Sunday, Jan. 21 at 9 p.m. ET on Hallmark Channel.
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